having so much headroom. Every other digital SLR I've owned has been right about the 2 1/3EV over "neutral" that the D800 allows–and none of them had anywhere near the total dynamic range of the D800, so I'm thrilled with the performance of the D800. It's take no time to get in the habit of placing my spot-metered neutral highlights at a cautiously conservative +2 for the D800 rather than an aggressive +2 2/3 or even occasionally +3 for the D700.

James Bligh
wrote:
Dynamic range

Nikon’s claims about more dynamic range than the D700 are true, but must be accompanied with a caveat. I’m finding that while there was a lot of recoverable headroom in D700 files, there isn’t so much in the D800 – however, there’s more useable shadow detail and less noise. Subjectively, I think we’ve lost 1 stop in the highlights and gained around 2 in the shadows; this at base ISO. You could probably pull a bit more out of it with judicious use of the right sliders in your raw converter, but then color accuracy starts to wane. At higher ISOs, color accuracy in the shadows is a bit suspect and heavily influenced by the ambient light source.

Intermediate conclusion

Initially, I thought I’d shoot this camera at full size raw and then reduce by 50% to 18MP; not so. Instead, I’m processing at full resolution but forcing myself to be more selective about the keepers. I guess it’s a rare example of a camera actually driving you to be a better photographer – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I still need to go out to buy more hard drives, though. MT

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I suspect 'more selective about the keepers' is an euphemism of 'unforgiving'.

Ming Thein
wrote:

I had a chance to put the D800 through its paces under better shooting conditions today - plenty of light and optimal apertures. In short: it delivers, and the resolution is truly astounding.